“You'll sing out if you need me?” he asked. “You will, won't you? You'll only have to sing once.”
He tramped heavily down. Gertrude walked over to the victim of the “mistake” and its consequences.
“I think,” she said coldly, “that you had better go.”
“Go?” Mr. Hungerford looked at her. “Go?” he repeated.
“Yes. I give you this opportunity. There will not be another. Go to your room, change your clothes, pack your trunk, and go--now, to-night.”
“What do you mean? That I am to go--and not come back?”
“Don't call me that. Don't DARE to speak to me in that tone. Go--now.”
“But, Ger--Miss Dott, I--I--don't you see it was all a mistake? I--”
“Stop! I am trying very hard to keep my temper. We have had scenes enough to-night. My mother is ill and she must not be disturbed again. If you do not go to your room and pack and leave at once, I shall call Mr. Ginn and have you put out, just as you are. I am giving you that opportunity. You had better avail yourself of it. I mean what I say.”
She looked as if she did. Cousin Percy evidently thought so. His humbleness disappeared.
“So?” he snarled angrily. “So that's it, eh? What do you think I am?”
Gertrude's eyes flashed. She bit her lip. When she spoke it was with deliberate distinctness. Every word was as sharp and cold as an icicle.
“Do you wish to know what I think you are?” she asked. “What I thought at the very beginning you were, and what I have been taking pains to make sure of ever since I came to this house? Very well, I'll tell you.”
She told him, slowly, calmly, and with biting exactness. His face was flushed when she began; when she finished it was white.
“That is what you are,” she said. “I do not merely think so. I have studied you carefully; I have stooped to associate with you in order to study you; I have studied you through your friends; I KNOW what you are.”
His anger and mortification were choking him.
“You--you--” he snarled. “So that is it, is it? You have been using me as a good thing. As a--as a--”
“As you have used my father and mother and their simple-minded goodness and generosity. Yes, I have.”
“You have been making a fool of me! And Holway--confound him--”
“Mr. Holway was useful. He helped. And he, too, understands, now.”